Bridget
0:15
Welcome back to another episode of Queen's Pitch Podcast. Hi, I'm Bridget.
Kara
0:19
I'm Kara. And here we go. So guess what, Kara? Guess what? We tied.
Bridget
0:25
We tied a turn tying tie. See? We are we. Okay. I'm tired of tying to. But let's. Let's start off with a positive. Like if we want to look at a stat and I'm not a big step or so, but let's do this. So out of the last 14 games, we've only lost two. Yep. So let's be positive about that. So at least we haven't lost. So all of these ties are ties. It sucks, but at least we tied and we didn't
Kara
0:51
lose. Yeah, but we're already at that point in the season where we've had so many ties from positions where we were up that it's, it's incredibly frustrating to then count all those points loss and sure I'm sure some of them would have been. But it feels like we are New York Red Bulls or Chicago from last year and it's just incredibly frustrating, especially this week. This week has been both encouraging but also kind of bitter tasting and I'm sure to the team, too.
Bridget
1:23
Oh, I'm sure. I don't think they'll tell us that. But I said if we if we were to get a tie, like I was really hoping, like I was like, if we get a tie on Saturday, I'll be happy. I should eat. My words mean I'm not mad, but I'm not satisfied with the tie. This one was really hard. It was hard to take. It was probably the hardest of the tasks that we had to take. Think this is it?
Kara
1:45
Yeah, especially coming after, you know, we've played all week. Nashville's played all week. It was at Nashville, so it was a tougher crowd. And actually Charlotte, you know, had better ball possession. We had really good defense pretty much for once. And we know that Nashville in the past has scored some ridiculous things on us that we were just like, Really? That that happened. So it felt like they were two pretty evenly matched teams, especially with Nashville coming out of tying Miami twice this month. And we knew we were at kind of a very low point when we faced Miami. And I gotta hope that we make a better showing in October. But, you know, Nashville's a good team. They've played well. We knew that going in there and they had the home advantage. So the fact that we were still zero zero for like until the 90 was kind of impressive. I mean, boring for the people watching, but. Right.
Bridget
2:45
Yeah, we did a really good job of like keeping possession of the ball. We played around with it well. We knew what we were doing. I guess we didn't. We tried to shoot a couple times and didn't work out real well. Gosh, there were some that you just have to make, you know, you just have to make them. But we'll talk about that. I think that's part of my route. But it was I thought we did it really well playing against them because in Nashville, one of the top teams in the league. So I thought we did really well overall until the 90. Seventh minute when there was only supposed to be four minutes of absorption. Yeah,
Kara
3:24
there were easily things to see that we could improved upon. And, you know, speaking of those, let's just go right into our rasp because we're kind of dancing all around it. Let's just go there first and then we can say maybe some positives because there have to be some. But it's it's just not as easy to see. I feel like in light of the feeling of the game,
Bridget
3:46
I think there was some like, like light at the end of the rainbow, if we could say that. But let's go with the rafts and just everybody knows when we say rafts, we're not like saying rats in like an evil way and like partial people who are just saying that these are things that we would do better, we would like to see better. So I'm going to start with just like
Kara
4:02
the fancy word. Go ahead. We like it as a matter as it's not going to be on a specific person. I don't want to like say so-and-so did bad, although have had to definitely have one person that I have man. But my thing is the team is to say we don't finish. We don't finish. We don't finish. I think that's the whole motto is we didn't finish when we got when we got down to the hand where we needed to shoot, we didn't finish through. We didn't follow through on that. We didn't finish when we distributed the ball. How's it go? Oh, we didn't do that. We didn't finish up, you know, the game when we had control of it. We just aren't we're not finishers and I don't know what that is. What is it going to take to get these guys to finish? Just to close out, Just to do it? Like I feel it's just frustrating because you're like when they're got the ball and they're in the final third and you're like, just shoot to shoot or pass or cross or do something with it. And they just sit there and dabble, dabble, dabble. And you're like, Just follow through, finish. And then when we had opportunities to when the goalie was out of the box, we just whiffed it to the side or didn't do what? We don't understand that part. And then I don't have a clue what happened in there when they got down to our box
Bridget
5:16
because we just didn't follow through in our box period much of the time, and then we just didn't finish the game. So I guess my wrath is the fact that we just don't finish. Part
Kara
5:25
of the most frustrating things about watching this game is that. Nashville was waiting on us. We were too patient for this match overall, and that's why the first half is such a dud. 2s It's just it's too slow and you've got to go faster in key moments. And we did not we kept slowing down the play. And that's where I kind of expect somebody to pull that up or whoever's controlling the tempo. I typically expect it's Westwood. But why? Why were we so slow? And, I don't know, like Nashville was like, okay, cool, we'll just wait on you. And that's kind of what we did for most of the 90.
Bridget
6:06
It was like Maddie was happy with us just And so you're like, Whatever we do, we're just going to tie some tie.
Kara
6:14
Don't necessarily think it was Lottie. I just think it was. That's sometimes Charlotte Ball is slow it down, but this one at Nashville needed to move quicker and no one could really like without Brecht, who had been making that move faster. It felt like we didn't know how to do that the same way. And maybe that's because of how we switched our lineup up a little bit. But either way, it just didn't feel like the same team moving forward that we had had. And well, I have some theories about that. They don't really fall into a full. Rath But one of the things I think falls into that for me was Carroll had a terrible game, like one of the worst. And again, I don't think you can get this all on him. I don't think he saw the ball. I don't I'm not sure what happened. But it he was barely playing. Barely. And not only that, he kept getting his pocket picked. I don't
Bridget
7:10
know. Is Carol not all there mean is he think he's already moved on in his mind mentally I think
Kara
7:15
it's probably been a tough week word wise for him to focus let's put it that way. He got nominated to go for Poland for the international duty.
Bridget
7:23
I think he got to play right after the game.
Kara
7:25
Right. I would expect that. But that's what I'm saying. Like he's had a tough focus week and we had three games. So by two, you know, when we play Nashville, it makes sense that he was a little not all there, but also he needed to be. And I do think that whoever he had, like he had great connection with Brecht. So I think just some of that switching up and it him getting rattled. He just had a terrible game. He had a terrible game. And you know, there's going to come those got to hope he plays better for Poland.
Bridget
7:57
Let's hope
Kara
7:58
Also Derek I thought had a terrible game I hate in this eight role. I told Jason, that's my husband. I was telling him like I just I don't like him up there. I like him better at the six. I don't mind him doing a double pivot. That's fine, but I don't like him up there because we know D.J does not play fast balls, he just doesn't. And in the final third he's even less forward. Had experience than Bronco. Like he might have gotten that one goal off. Great. But as far as consistency in that this is not his strong suit. And so I feel like in where we're utilizing him is is kind of a. Square peg, round hole sort of situation. Speaking of Bronco, like, I do understand why he's keeping him in that front, but he's also not our attacker in that role either. So I think these all of these pieces were lacking creativity. 1s And I think that's one of the reasons that made us not as forward. Movement in our opposition and, you know, trying to attack the ball, trying to make shots happen because it was a dud game for shots
Bridget
9:15
like the first half. I think one shot on goal and it wasn't about us. I think it was about natural. There's one shot, like, seriously, it was bad. It was so boring to watch. He said that we dominated the ball, you know what I mean? We had the ball, so at least we had that going on. Like we were trying to Hail Mary the whole game. I just think they need to do better when they're in the final third. We have to we have to start finishing. We have to start closing out. We have to. We can't win the championships or anything without it.
Kara
9:42
It was uncharacteristic of I feel like the games we've played recently, shall we say, with all of our shots and stuff. However, moving forward, the second half was much more encouraging with that, with the subs that came in
Bridget
9:57
any sudden early. Yeah, that's,
Kara
10:01
that's the first time I've been super happy. But the problem was with that subbing early was finally Carroll and Carmel did something in those five minutes and by the time you took him off, no wonder he was pissed. But Kerr was being right again. He had 45 in the first to to do something, but it felt like they finally. 1s Woke up those five minutes and then he pulled them off. So I think it was more a little bit of a karma situation.
Bridget
10:28
On the bench, Cara was not happy about that, that, well, what are you going to do about it? We put Enzo in
Kara
10:34
Going to My Wrath. It kind of falls in line, I think. Falls naturally after yours in that mine is not to one player either. It's more about composure and communication for this match, and it mainly has to do one with composure about attacking the ball, which I feel like we've covered pretty much. But also Sweet Bender, 1s I think had a better game than Wednesday, but he still made that, you know, he pulled some shots off, but then he couldn't. He just doesn't see Westwood and Carroll at the top of the box and those kind of things where you're like, you've got to be watching those holes. And he was a little too slow in the ball, which I think he'll improve. I don't think it's terrible, but that was one of the composure moments for the offense, but the main composure moments on the defense, I think very obviously it has to be that poor penalty, soft penalty on burn and those final moments like we had gotten the goal from our field, which was amazing. And yet we only have to really hold it for like another minute and a half at most. Right, Right. But the first thing is that Collina, he gives away the goal kick and throws it into the stands instead of making it waste more time by staying on the pitch. What is that? That was incredibly frustrating. Yes, he held the ball, but then he he didn't keep his composure to keep it on the pitch, to waste more of their time to have them run after it. And so that really helped Nashville to get that final momentum for that final push. And then in that moment where Byrne is trying to deflect the Nashville player, of course he switched sides again, which you don't love. I feel like that rattled him Wednesday and that it's tough today. I think at that moment if that happens they've all got to be communicating more in those moments because of that, because Bernd is not where he was playing. And I think that. 1s That it makes a difference here. It's made a difference in the last in the in the final minutes. But he's coming down for that ball. Nashville's coming. That ball bounces Weird is trying to deflect him and Byrne hooks the Nashville guy's arm to pull him down. He doesn't attempt to play the ball because it's gone. He tries to play the man, but in doing so, he grabs the man and takes him down. Now he doesn't get a yellow. I mean, he doesn't get a read for it. He gets a yellow, which, you know, that's fortuitous because it means he doesn't automatically lose Miss the next game, but it does give them that pick when it wasn't necessary one bit, Collina could have come out to claim that ball like he should have. And there was another catch earlier that he didn't grab that just seemed like he was caught flat footed or something. And so I don't know why they weren't all hollering for either him to come get it or Milan to shouting Byrne off that ball because Maulana clears it seconds later and it's just so incredibly frustrating. I think we were all the team, the fans, everybody was just crying. Maybe Nashville wasn't, but because we know he knew Mukhtar is going to make that penalty.
Bridget
13:55
Oh yeah,
Kara
13:57
It's just choked and
Bridget
13:59
clean and rattled was rattled. Anyway, he didn't seem like he was on his face. He looked he just looked awful last night for some weird reason. Yeah. And that one really rattled him. That mean that one shook him up. If it weren't. If the other ones didn't. Oh, that was a couple of times. The Post helped us out. That was a really scary last night that that happened. But I agree with you. They weren't communicating. There was a time saw that Melinda couldn't get to the ball and he did. He did call calling and he said, come get it. I can't. I'm clean. Did come out and cleared it. Right? So you you were like, good job, Melanie. You knew a lot and knew what to do. He was like, okay, can go. I ain't got this. Say, you better come and get you better help me out. This one. I don't even think Burn had time to think. And I don't even think Burn meant to grab the dude's arm. I don't know if he did or not, but I just know it was so fast and was going so quickly that I thought Ccleaner should have been control on that situation. You know, Ccleaner should have been like, Yo, I'm here, you know, back out, you know, back it up about you. But instead it was like it was all every man for himself. Like you said, it was just weird situation. I don't know if they got too excited or waiting on that whistleblower or what that was going on, but I think when Ccleaner clicked it out of bounds, I thought he was already rattled at that point. So his he was done. I really think he was done. And I don't know, like I said last time, how many times do we 2s how many times do we lose and then not blame it on the goalkeeper when it's that the last minutes, you know? And I thought the only way clean was coming back was if he saved that goal last night. But he we knew he was, you know, we knew we know
Kara
15:33
I would have rather Colina gotten a yellow for holding the ball longer.
Bridget
15:39
I thought he did didn't he really? For
Kara
15:41
holding? No, we had three yellows, but they're not on Colina. He got the whistle blown at him. I'll
Bridget
15:46
be like, Hey, hurry it up. He didn't get a yellow. That's what I'm saying. Like, maybe he should have held it longer and taken the yellow. But I agree with you. I don't think he was 100%. I'm not sure why. Maybe because we had three games. We've played him constantly for the past two months. I don't know. And we've had a ton of games in the past two months. I mean, it's like a lot, but he's not 100%. He barely managed to deflect that ball that looked like he could have caught it. It's not like him. And yet again, we don't have another clean sheet. And that's demoralizing in some ways because he was so,
Kara
16:21
so good last year. So, I mean, you got to think that they are taking this and once more a bitter pill to swallow for everyone. And so hopefully they're dissecting that and improving it because it's it's a thorn. It's worse than a crack. Yeah.
Bridget
16:39
And I think Lanny was kind of upset. He obviously is not going to dog the team because that's not the type of coach that he is. But he was upset. He said we could we could have won that last night. And you can tell he was not happy. He's not he wasn't happy, but he wasn't blaming the defense because, you know, he didn't do that. But I don't think he'll replace cleaning either. We have a lot of goalies. We do have a lot of good goalies on our on our lineup. We can't just sit back and let let this be our be our thorn in our side. At some point we've got to realize that, yes, it's good that cleaning can make saves and that he's great when we have penalty kicks at the end sometimes. But that's not what we do in life, you know? And when you think it was. I think we've lost. We've come back now. Ten, ten. We've lost that. We had the lead in. It's a hard it's a hard pill to swallow. And and at some point you have to blame the goalkeeper because that's his job. That's what he gets paid to do. Got Pablo that's getting paid a lot of money to not even sit on the bench, which we don't want him to replace. Marks And then you got marks that's just, you know, there. And then you got that new guy, right? That's on the legacy team.
Kara
17:47
Yeah, but you have to. You have to. Okay. Special dispensation to pull them up. And I don't think I don't see them doing that right now
Bridget
17:54
is while we're on our team we're seeing on the legacy
Kara
17:56
Walker is signed to us but O'Donnell is not okay.
Bridget
18:01
So anyway, I'm not saying that we replace cleaner right now because I don't know, but I just think that we have to keep those options. And I did not message George and say get ready. I want to get in and because that's well I do think that something's up with clean and he we need to address that because we can't we can't just like said Woodburn wasn't doing his job. We were paying him money. If we're paying a certain amount, I need you to do that job for that amount. And if you're not, then there's something up.
Kara
18:28
So we've had a lot of. All discussing probably the sad points about this match. Let's let's move into the positive. So, Bridget, do you have a favor of this match? I
Bridget
18:39
do. I do have one. He's so pretty. The blue eyes, blonde hair. No, I'm not talking about Enzo. I don't even know if Enzo's was. I'm talking about. Yeah, you're on. And you're. 2s And I don't think anybody really knows how to say his name. I think that the commentator said like 3 or 4 different ways, but that guys, he came in as a left back, but he played he played in Cameo spot most the time he was in the defense. And here's here's Harry up there the front running around doing his thing. Sometimes I mix him up with Camille because they all have like between him and Camille and and Carol, they look old. They do look similar. So I know you make fun of me about the shoe thing, but I was at a party on Saturday night and someone else said, the shoes make a difference. I can tell about the shoes. So just so you know, think you had on like glue or something. But anyway, so they could tell. But it was hard to tell. But Yuri was up there. I guess Vladi likes him up there in the front. He was playing that inverted fullback. Math and it was doing a good job and don't he didn't score but he shot a couple times. And I like him. He's aggressive on the ball. He saved some for killing a couple times where he just went out there and kicked it out of bounds when he needed to. I didn't see him make any mistakes and he had you know, that was his first start. Right. So, yes. So that was pretty awesome. Good for him. And he's going to Finland now, so mu but good for him.
Kara
20:04
Yeah, it was really nice just to see him get some significant minutes because we have not gotten that opportunity yet so we can really digest what type of player he was. And it does seem like he is that fullback that he is wanting to get all the way up the pitch and to overlap with the wingers and in a similar way that Byrne does. So as far as like what we saw out of what Lattanzi wants from his fullbacks, I felt like you really did see that this game, even if there were some, you know, differences about how we're playing that because if we just didn't have some other things that it didn't go perfectly, obviously. But I think as far as what yet was brought here to do, he made a significant difference. And I also really liked the way he overlapped. Yes, you cannot tell to me him and come apart. Almost all of our have the same deal on and on that side. Yes they do. It's very hard. And so I'm like, who got that foul? 1s But I really liked what he did and how they played together. I think what he just needs now is more chemistry, more time to gel with the squad. And I mean, I liked him playing the way he did as long as he did. I don't dislike that we put Jalen Lindsey in. However, it would be nice if we didn't have to switch burn side to side. I don't think that's working for us very well and obviously he wants burn out there and I also think Lindsey, for the few minutes he did for him, played well and had more of an attacking mindset. He got more balls up into the final third for the other team. So I mean, overall, this is the best we've looked all season. With full backs, period. So finally, finally, we
Bridget
22:00
have a left bag. 1s We've been working on the whole year, the entire year long, and we finally got one. We finally got one. Well, burns out next game. Think right because it's yellow card accumulation thing, right? Oh, he couldn't get them any more and he's just got to he got one last week and one this week so we have to look that up. I don't know how many you can get after your fifth one before you're out again. Three.
Kara
22:23
It's one more. I was gonna say we might get to see Lindsey and Harry, you know, on the field together. We don't know. But he's. He's so fresh. He's so clean. Like I said, he just brings out there. There's a nice little energy. And he does that thing like he said that lady wants him to do. He knows what to do. And maybe since he's familiar with whatever that that is, he can teach that to Lindsay. And get Lindsay up to speed on it because Burns does it burns all over the place. There was one point I was like, What is Byrne doing? Like he was. It was in the midfield hanging out with Scott Arfield. I'm like, What are you doing, dude? What are you doing?
Bridget
23:01
But that's what he does. So I think that, yeah, he never was just chilling. He was always moving. And I like it. I like that he's moving around, that he's doing things. He's trying to make things happen. He's already involved in the game. For him, that would be his first his first time start and he's only been with the team a couple games. He's already in it. He wants to do stuff. He wants to make things happen. He's not scared Like, I like that he's not afraid and he's ready to help the team win
Kara
23:30
and think it's interesting to that fluidity along the back line. You particularly notice Dara getting in some significant places so that he can provide that last little bit of defense, which has been probably a little bit different because we haven't always been able to get back. So I think his fitness and his speed are are there as well. And it did help the partnership of Private Milan to burn that whole back line in having him that spot because he's able to be fluid but also understand positioning and understand where he should be more naturally.
Bridget
24:05
So who's your favor?
Kara
24:06
My favor, very obviously. Potentially goes to Adele and Miranda. I just thought he had another great match and didn't know this till, like I'd already said. Yeah, I think I'd just saw how he played. I felt like his effort on the defense this time covering Mukhtar and denying him some obvious things. Not to mention, I think Shaquille Berg was just not able to do anything. You know, there was some other other people that on Nashville who they have some great guys up there in offense. And, you know, I feel like Mellado was watching those things. He was more communicative. He got some significant balls out of dangerous areas and cleared them when we needed him to. But he also provided and I didn't know this till after he provided the assist that for Scott Fields goal. And so I just really think overall this game full 90 Dustin had a great match and I'm so happy that he was able to do something like that, especially since he provided winning aerials, which we struggled against this game. Nashville has some very tall men and so that was not a strong suit for us, except for maybe Abdul.
Bridget
25:19
He's so good for him to be so young and his presence. I just hope another team doesn't want to come and get him because could see that happen in the off season and I'll really like him and I like all the things about him. I like how he's tall and he smiles and he runs that back line. I think if we we lose him, we miss, we miss out a big part and then we're going to shake it all up again. So let's see. Pay attention. Keep this guy at all cost.
Kara
25:46
We have an honorable mention, though. We also have to congratulate Scott Arfield for his goal and for his effort in providing more attacking substance in the final third than we'd had pretty much all match. And I like him there better than Bronco. Think Bronco provides that extra defensive, but Scott pushes it over the edge on offensive because he knows where to be. He knows how to place the ball. And we finally saw him get an incredibly gifted goal. So kudos to
Bridget
26:17
him. Was that on his first touch or his second touch? Either way, it was beautiful. It was a beautiful shot. He's not scared to do it. Not scared to take it. It comes his way. He takes it and it goes. It goes in the net. He didn't just take it in an air mills or go to the side and flips out. He's not scared. He does that. I think that's the one thing that Bender needs to do better. Is what Scott does. Scott sees it comes to Scott, he kicks it, goes in, Bender gets it he till dowels around and then like, oh no, I need a shoot. So one day maybe Scott can train and it'll just take time in those moments. But I do think it's important to notice who didn't get a yellow this match. Who am I talking about? And so
Kara
27:00
yeah, nah, clap for the guy.
Bridget
27:03
And he seemed to have a totally different attitude out there. He had a really big smile on his face. He was enjoying life out there.
Kara
27:10
He pulled the yellow for the other team. But I think he also fell into the problem that Carol had somewhat and the hold up play or something was was rough.
Bridget
27:19
It wasn't a good game for Enzo at that point either because he yes, he was out there, but he there were times where he was trotting around where he you know how Carol runs around like he's always moving and when, when the ball is and we have it in their final third and Carol's move and trying to make things happen in that box like trying to move fish and you could tell Enzo wasn't he wasn't going really fast. He wasn't trying to move around. He was like, I'm in the box. You either shoot, you pass to me or whatever, and I need to see him be a little more aggressive in that aspect. He like, needs to understand he wasn't wanting to get a yell, but he needs to. He can't be a mercy. That's what someone said. Someone said, Well, mercy doesn't really do a lot. He just stands on what's more positive? Well, and not messy. So I'm going to need you to perform a little bit higher speed and we'll do something. But he didn't fall foul, so that was good. And he seemed
Kara
28:09
happier. Zero fouls and got pulled a foul that someone else got a yellow. It was just okay. He played a little bit and didn't have a big negative so good. I'm so glad. All right. So now we've got a nice break from soccer for a bit, so we'll see you soon and hopefully we'll get to watch some international matches. I'm looking forward to it. Yes. I'd
Bridget
28:31
like to see Carol play and I'll see everybody anyway and then everybody has a great week. Thanks for listening. Thank you for
Kara
28:37
listening. We love you. Bye bye. Bye. 9s It's.